


you're not my homeland anymore

by jetplane



Series: Whumptober 2020 [12]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Difficult Decisions, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Minor Character Death, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:00:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26984803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jetplane/pseuds/jetplane
Summary: Situations change, and JJ finds herself having to rewrite her last will and testament.prompt: broken trust (day 12)
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau & Spencer Reid, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/William LaMontagne Jr.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946050
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	you're not my homeland anymore

**Author's Note:**

> see endnote for content warnings
> 
>  _I think I've seen this film before  
>  and I didn't like the ending  
> you're not my homeland anymore  
> so what am I defending?  
> you were my town, now I'm in exile seein' you out  
> I think I've seen this film before_  
> \- "exile" by Taylor Swift

The kids had gone to bed, and all JJ wanted to do was watch something that wasn’t animated. She had just settled on a bad rom-com and was less than a minute into it when Will interrupted her. In his hand was a sheet of paper.

“JJ, we need to talk about something.” Her husband’s serious expression made her stomach flutter, and she immediately muted the TV. “I think we need to talk about our wills.”

“Our wills?” she echoed. JJ couldn’t remember exactly when she and her husband had last visited them, but she was pretty sure it was only a few years ago. “Didn’t we just update them?”

Will shook his head. “They’re not current,” he replied.

“Alright.” JJ sat up on the couch and crossed her legs. “What do we need to change?”

He couldn’t look her in the eye. “Guardianship.” Will handed the paper to her and pointed at a line.

**In the event that I should die the sole parent of minor children Henry LaMontagne and Michael LaMontagne, I appoint Spencer Walter Reid as Guardian of said minor children. If this named Guardian is unable or unwilling to serve, then I appoint Penelope Grace Garcia as alternate Guardian.**

Her shoulders slumped. “I forgot about that,” she whispered.

Will nodded and took a seat beside her on the couch. He squeezed JJ’s hand. “I think it’s time for us to take him out of the will.”

~

_Reid had just received his ten-year chip when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up with an unsub’s needle in his neck. The team found him half an hour later. He’d assured them that he was fine and they’d tried to believe him. But a month after the incident, Reid stumbled into work an hour late with a fresh needle wound bleeding through his sleeve, and they realized they had to step in. Rossi paid for him to go to rehab under an assumed name while Prentiss pulled strings to let him keep his job. All his friends took turns visiting him, and for a while, Reid seemed to be getting better. He left rehab and returned to work. For three months, everything was normal._

_And then Diana passed away one night and Ethan was killed in a car accident two days later. JJ went to Spencer’s apartment when he stopped answering his phone and found him so strung out that he couldn’t remember his own name. When he came to, Spencer didn’t even try to lie about his drug use. JJ stayed with him while he detoxed and drove him to NA every single day for a month. He promised Emily that he’d stay clean this time, and she managed to get him back into the BAU. She told him that this was the final straw, and he believed her._

_A year later, Rossi walked into the bathroom at work and found Reid on the floor, a needle still in his arm. His heart rate had fallen so low that Rossi was sure he was dead, and he cried when he found a pulse. When an ambulance arrived to take Reid to the hospital, Prentiss knew she couldn’t help him anymore. At rehab, the only people who visited were JJ and Morgan._

_Will set up the spare bedroom, and Reid moved into the LaMontagne house. Without a job or apartment, Spencer’s sobriety was so tenuous that Will and JJ started seriously considering if they should teach their kids how to use Narcan. They considered themselves lucky when it was only Will who was home when Reid shot up heroin mixed with fentanyl and stopped breathing for two minutes. Nobody ever found out what his trigger had been, but it didn’t matter. JJ visited once at the hospital to tell him that she loved him but that she couldn’t take it anymore. He didn’t try to change her mind._

-

It had been almost five months since anyone had heard from Reid. Five months of reaching for gentle ways to explain to their kids where their godfather was. Will found “Spencer Reid obituary” in the search history of Henry’s tablet and thanked God that there were no results. That was when he realized what he needed to do.

“I still want Penelope to take the kids,” JJ told her husband. “She’s their godmother and I know she’ll do what’s best for them.”

Will nodded. “She will,” he agreed. They both knew that there was nothing Garcia wouldn’t do for the people she loved. “But if she can’t…”

JJ sighed and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to do this, but she knew it was the right thing to do. There was no use pretending otherwise. “Derek,” she said, shocking both of them with her decisiveness. “He’s…” _the most like Spencer_ , she wanted to say. “I think he’s the right person for the job.”

Her husband gently squeezed her hand again and then picked up the papers from JJ’s lap. “I agree,” he replied. “He and Savannah are good parents. They’ll raise our boys right.”

She forced a smile. “I’ll call him this weekend,” she promised.

“This weekend? Why not-” Will cut himself off, biting his lip and averting his gaze. “Alright. You’ll call him this weekend.” He stood up and kissed his wife’s cheek, then left the room.

JJ closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to think of anything to get the conversation out of her head. The rom-com was still playing, but it no longer had the same appeal. She picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts. Although JJ had memorized the number years ago, she could never bring herself to delete it. With a deep breath, she pressed the ‘call’ button.

“Hi, Spencer. It’s me, JJ. I don’t know if you even still have this phone anymore, or if you want to hear from me, but...I had to call. I hope you’re doing better, and I - I wanted to let you know that I still miss you. Henry and Michael talk about you all the time. I wish you could see them now. You’ll - you’ll always be their godfather; nothing will ever take that away. So please just...take care of yourself, alright? I love you, Spence.”

**Author's Note:**

> content warning for referenced drug use and drug overdoses, referenced minor character deaths, and discussion of major character deaths (but no actual major character death)
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little story, and I hope everyone reading this has something good happen to them today!


End file.
